fm6user

Vaughan- I guess I am not sure what the technical meaning of "network" is. Both mac computers have the passord and ability to access the idisk. One person "owns" the imac account. The other person can access files in the public folder of the idisk, which is where the fmp6 and the data will reside. I suppose that is a "network?"

Thanks Stuart. Seems like so long as we have a system for not clicking on the db file on the idisk, and only accessing it on the local machines with file>open remote, that will be ok. Isn't that basically a server?

I don't know much about VPN's. But, neither user has a desktop computer which is always on. Both are laptop users. The fmp database is very small, about 600K. Also, they will not access it very frequently, at most only about once per day, some times only once per week. Given this situation, is the risk of data corruption fairly small with my above solutions? Would putting FMP on the idisc, and then having the users access the data by open-remote reduce the chances of data corruption as compared to having them either (1) copy the data to their local hard drive, making changes, and uploading the data file back to the idisc, or (2) having them run fmp locally, but make the changes directly to the data on the idisc (this way is very slow)? Thanks

Thanks. I found "open remote." the problem is that the two computers who will use the data base are not on a network. The only way I can think of for them to access the same database file is to post it on the idisc. Any suggestions?

So, you mean using remote access? I would put a copy of fmp6 on the idisc and open the data base with it. I would then allow remote access of that db file on the idisc by the two users? Or, what about copying the file from idisc to the local user, the user will edit the file, and then uploading the db file back to the idisc? thanks

Thanks. I tried the following and it seems to work. We put the data file on an "idisc" on an imac account. I opened the data file and using file sharing set the file to multi user. Each of the two users have fmp5, and they access the data over the web. This method is slow, but works. For longer sessions, they can copy the data from the idisc, make the changes, then copy the file back to idisc. If the two computers are ever on a network, I will try the remote access method.

I have a novice question I could not answer from searching. I want to share a filemaker 6 data base between two computers which are not networked. Both are Mac's. The purpose of sharing the data base is that both users will make changes to the data base. I was thinking of having the data file reside on a server that both computers could access via the net, like a .mac account. The users don't want to have to copy the file from the server to their own computers each time they want to make a change to the data base. Someone told me that we need a newer version of file maker to do this. Is that correct? which version? Thanks.